Jesus Diaz

When I first saw this photo I immediately thought "what the hell is thing?" Then Attila Nagy told me about it: It's a nuclear armed AGM-86B cruise missile. Three of them, in fact, being loaded on a B-52 Stratofortress.

It's hard to tell because you are looking at the butt of this 1.4-ton nuclear shark, which is 20 foot and 9 inches long (6.3 meters) and has a wingspan of 12 feet (3.7 meters.)

The image was just taken at the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota during "a large-scale inspection for all base operations." You will be happy to know that "for the Nuclear Surety Inspection portion, the 91st Missile Wing and the 5th Bomb Wing received a rating of satisfactory. The 91st MW completed the Nuclear Operations Readiness Inspection with an excellent rating." God save America and our nuclear toys.